A half a million dollar luxury yacht stolen from the island of Martinique
has turned up in Belize. The “Ishtar” was rented by Czech national
Gaspar Milos from a company in Martinique on February 28th. But miles allegedly
took off in the luxury yacht and never looked back. He docked in Belize two
weeks at the Cucumber Beach Marina at Old Belize which is where our story begins.
Keith Swift Reporting,
It says it is the ‘Victoria’ but what you’re looking at is
the ‘Ishtar’ – a six figure luxury yacht with 3 bedrooms,
2 bathrooms, a living room, and a dining room. It sailed into the cucumber beach
marina with four men onboard 2 weeks ago.
Keith Swift,
Was there anything suspicious about these men?
Francis Woods, Crime Stoppers
“Not particularly. It is kind of weird that you see four guys come
in just like that. Normally it is a couple, a retired couples, families that
come in on sail boats. They just hanged out at the bar and they drank a lot
of beers and they went to Palm Island at night, that kind of stuff. So there
was nothing really too suspicious.
They came in and right away they had some little issues with immigration
because they didn’t come in with all the proper paperwork and they managed
to get some bills of sale and seaworthiness certificate for the boat to immigration.
That satisfied them that they were the owners of the boat and they got their
passports back. If this poster did not come through Crime Stoppers, we would
have never known that this was an illegal boat or a stolen boat.”
The poster is this flyer from West Indies Crime Stoppers about a stolen vessel
from Martinique. It came along with passport photos of the four men and that’s
what set off alarms for Woods.
Francis Woods,
“On Monday evening we got information from Crime Stoppers, a poster,
that a vessel was stolen from Martinique and once I saw the poster and the passport
pictures of the persons aboard, we realized that the sailboat was indeed in
Cucumber Beach Marina. Then we notified the Belize National Coast Guard which
Commander Borland sent out his team right away and notified police. I would
say that within half hour the police were here, the gentlemen aboard the boat
were away for a little bit, but within two hours they were arrested.
The way Crime Stoppers works is that you can get the information to the
right authorities and this guy that sent that information did a good job because
not only did he send a picture of the sailboat but he sent passport pictures
of the gentlemen who stole it and so that’s what triggered it because
I didn’t recognize the boat because they had painted over the sides of
the boat and changed the name. So it would have been hard for anybody regularly
to recognize it.”
Keith Swift,
So Crime Stopper worked.
Francis Woods,
“This is certainly our biggest recovery. This thing is valued at $400,000
as it is. A brand new boat like this is about $600,000. So it is definitely
our biggest report where Crime Stoppers successful.”
The mastermind is believed to be this man: Czech national Milos Gaspar who
is wanted in Missouri for fraud. The yacht will remain at cucumber beach until
its owner claims it.
The men detained by police are Czech nationals Gaspar Milos, Jan Minarik,
and Miroslav Dolezalex and Australian national Petr Dombrovsky. We have no indications
as to when they will be charged. Again the boat is at cucumber beach and will
remain there until the owner from Martinique sends for it. No word on who will
get the reward money from Crime Stoppers but Francis Woods says today’s
bust is an indication that Crime Stoppers is still working. That number is 0-800-922-TIPS.
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